|
|
Article: Thomas Sherman: U.S. Air Force Colonel, Jan. 1965-Jan. 1966; Sept. 1972-Feb. 1973.(MY WAR)
- Article from:
- Vietnam
- Article date:
- December 1, 2009
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2009 Weider History Group. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
|
WE BOMBED HANOI WITH B-52S for the first time in December 1972. It was called Operation Linebacker II and it was 11 days of bombing. I led the third attack. A lot of people, me included, think that's what basically ended the war because up until then the North Vietnamese and the South Vietnamese were dragging their feet.
The conventional wisdom at the time was that if we got too tough on North Vietnam, the Chinese would come in. We didn't want that. We didn't want to get into a Korean-style war with China. Richard Nixon and Henry Kissinger opened the doors to China and the best I can tell, they got tacit approval from Mao Tse-Tung that the Chinese wouldn't react ...